Genetic Engineering I

Nucleotides

• Building blocks of DNA and RNA

• DNA– Genetic material– “information” storage

• RNA– Structural and information expression– Catalysis– Probable first biopolymer

Terminology

• Bases– Nitrogen containing ring

• Nucleoside– Base attached to sugar

• Nucleotide– Nucleoside + phosphate

• Nucleic Acid– Polymers of nucleotides

A nice, convenientnumbering scheme?

Polymerize at 5’and 3’ positions

DNA is deoxy at2’ position

Common Bases

DNA vs. RNA

A=T or A=U pairsG=C pairs

What is effect of high GC content?

B DNA

Other forms exist

Biotechnology

• The discovery of restriction endonucleases (enzymes) was essential to the development of biotechnology.– Cleave at specific DNA sequences

• hundreds to thousands of bp separation

– Usually recognizes a palindromic sequence– Likely part of a host defense mechanism *– Allows you to cut and paste pieces of DNA

New England Biolabs

• http://www.neb.com/

• rebase

Plasmids

Today:Satellite DNAfrom E. coli picked from gel